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One-quarter of Garcia's restitution paid to EPISD

The El Paso Independent School District has received $48,150 so far in restitution from former Superintendent Lorenzo Garcia, who was released from prison for federal fraud in 2014.

A federal judge ordered Garcia, 60, to pay $180,000 in restitution to EPISD for the harm caused by a districtwide scheme to artificially inflate student test scores.

Garcia’s term of supervision says he must pay $1,500 per month or 15 percent of his monthly paycheck, whichever is greater.

Because his net income was $5,000 per month last year, Senior U.S. District Judge David Briones last year ordered Garcia to pay $1,500 per month to the school district. The former superintendent was then working for a roofing company in Houston, and also received income from a monthly pension.

As of late January, Garcia has paid about one-quarter of the restitution. At the current rate of $1,500 per month, it will take him at least seven more years to pay the rest of the amount.

Briones sentenced Garcia to 3½ years in prison in 2012 for conspiracy to commit mail fraud, and ordered him to pay $180,000 in restitution to EPISD.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons cut 11 months off his sentence for participating in a drug-counseling program.

Garcia’s last restitution payment was made Dec. 18, EPISD spokeswoman Melissa Martinez said in an email.

Garcia is one of only two former EPISD administrators who were convicted of conspiracy to commit mail fraud for the cheating scheme. Former administrator Myrna Gamboa was sentenced to five years probation in January 2015.

The scheme targeted students who were limited-English proficient, with administrators improperly promoting or holding them back, enrolling them in the wrong grade, altering their transcripts and denying them credit to falsely improve the EPISD's performance on state standardized tests.